French photonics company specializing in fiber amplifiers, LiDAR light sources, and on-chip erbium-doped photonic integration.
KEOPSYS INDUSTRIES is a French photonics company based in Lannion — a city with a dense optics industry heritage — specializing in fiber lasers, amplifiers, and photonic components. Their H2020 work positions them as a supplier of high-performance optical sources and sensing hardware, particularly for LiDAR applications using time-of-flight and frequency-modulated continuous-wave techniques. In VIZTA, they contributed photonic components (VCSELs, SPADs) to a multi-application sensing platform targeting biometrics, industrial automation, and smart buildings. In OPHELLIA, they moved deeper into the component stack, working on erbium-doped on-chip lasers integrated in silicon nitride and aluminum oxide waveguide platforms — a direct response to demand for compact, integrated LiDAR light sources.
Both VIZTA and OPHELLIA center on LiDAR — VIZTA at the system/application level using ToF and SPAD detectors, OPHELLIA at the laser source level with on-chip erbium-doped amplifiers specifically designed for LiDAR.
OPHELLIA targets on-chip erbium-doped laser amplification in aluminum oxide and silicon nitride, which maps directly onto KEOPSYS's industrial background in rare-earth-doped fiber amplifiers.
VIZTA involved heterogeneous integration of VCSELs and single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) into a sensing platform targeting biometric identification and time-of-flight ranging.
OPHELLIA (2021–2025) introduced silicon nitride and aluminum oxide waveguide platforms with on-chip isolators and amplifiers, representing a shift from fiber-based to chip-scale photonic integration.
VIZTA explicitly targeted biometrics, security, Industry 4.0, and smart buildings as end-use cases for the sensing platform they contributed to.
KEOPSYS entered H2020 through VIZTA (2019) focused on system-level sensing: combining VCSELs, SPADs, optical phase arrays, and ToF ranging into platforms for security and industrial applications — the emphasis was on application reach and heterogeneous component integration. Their second project, OPHELLIA (2021), marks a clear inward move: the application context narrows to LiDAR specifically, while the technical depth increases sharply toward rare-earth gain materials, on-chip amplification, and waveguide-level photonic integration. The trend is from "photonic components in multi-application sensing systems" toward "specialized on-chip laser and amplifier technology for the LiDAR market."
KEOPSYS is moving toward deep photonic integration — on-chip lasers, amplifiers, and isolators for LiDAR — which suggests future collaborations will be sought in autonomous vehicles, industrial sensing, or photonic integrated circuit development rather than broad sensing platforms.
KEOPSYS has participated only as a consortium partner in both H2020 projects, never as coordinator — consistent with an industrial component supplier that provides specific enabling technology to larger system-level projects. Their 33 unique partners across 11 countries over just two projects indicates large, well-networked consortia rather than tight bilateral partnerships, which is typical for ICT Innovation Actions involving diverse technology providers. Working with them means engaging a specialist hardware contributor who brings photonic components and know-how to a project that others are orchestrating.
Despite only two projects, KEOPSYS has reached 33 unique consortium partners spread across 11 countries — an unusually broad network for a two-project participant, suggesting their projects were large multi-partner consortia typical of ICT Innovation Actions. Their Lannion base places them within the French Atlantic photonics corridor, which likely shapes their primary European connections.
KEOPSYS sits at a rare intersection: industrial-grade photonic component manufacturing combined with active participation in cutting-edge integrated photonics research. Few private companies combine rare-earth fiber amplifier production with R&D on on-chip erbium-doped waveguide lasers, making them a credible bridge between lab-scale photonic integration and manufacturable optical products. For consortia building LiDAR systems or silicon photonics platforms that need a commercial partner with both hardware production capability and deep component knowledge, KEOPSYS offers an industrial anchor that pure research groups cannot.
